BackMatter is an annual media and culture magazine produced by Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism students at the New School. We publish established and emerging writers and artists, both from New School students and non-students. We feature critical essays, creative nonfiction, prose, and poetry.


We dissect media in the contemporary context and contemplate how people coexist with it. Our writers and artists love hoarding songs and stockpiling books, and we appreciate them for not being residents of the corny island who obsess over either Foucault’s bald head or Efron’s facelift. Truth be told, our people will never stop asking: Is there anything left inside us that is authentically 'us,' amidst the relentless cacophony of media every day? Marshall McLuhan, a massage [sic] expert, deemed media 'the extensions of man,' but is it truly so? BackMatter is here to reflect on those extensions.